Sépulture des enfants et patria potestas. Un procès devant l’officialité d’Albi en 1335

Abstract

Children Burial and patria potestas. A case judged by the official of Albi in 1335. In 1335 a litigation opposed the blackfriars from Albi to the collegiate Church of St-Salvi, concerning the sepulture of young minor children. It was a traditionnal case of conflictual interests between parochial clergy and mendicant orders. The depositions of twenty one witnesses on the jacobine side were preserved. The litigation began very early in the century and knew many developments since 1310. According to the witnesses testimonies, fathers of the family in Albi had the choice to bury their dead children outside their parish since 1285 at least. Observed openly and without any contradiction, this way became a custom. Statements gave information on ritual of the death : election and place for the sepulture, funeral procession, the worshipping the young children. This conflicts underlined that the end of heresy in Albi met the return to the orthodoxy of heretical families belonging to the local oligarchy. Their dead young children were buried at the Blackfriars’, Grey friars’ and Whitefriars’ Houses.